The Spirit: How He Inspired

                                                                                                                by Bobby Price
Jesus told the disciples, "12 I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you." [Jhn. 16:12-14 ESV]

The Spirit guided them into all truth. Many of these truths were not already in their minds. Jesus said he had more things to teach them but couldn't (v12). There were lessons that the Apostles needed to learn but wouldn't learn from Jesus. These lessons would be taught to the Apostles by the Spirit in place of Jesus. This is what it means when Peter said they were "carried along" by the Holy Spirit,

[2Pe 1:21 ESV] For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit "carrying" them along means that the Spirit would take these ideas and place them into the Apostles' minds. In this way, the Spirit would take their minds and carry them to where they needed to go. These verses describe the process of inspiration very well,

[1Co 2:11-12 ESV] 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

Notice what Paul says there, the Spirit knows the thoughts of God and the Spirit gives the thoughts of God to Paul the Apostle. Paul did not have to arrive at a conclusion, the Spirit gave it to him. The Apostles did not make up these doctrines; they were given to them by the Spirit. The thoughts and the truths were placed into their minds so they could speak them or write them down.

2 Peter 1:21 is in the context of prophecy which can be trusted and is written by eyewitnesses of Jesus' majesty. That prophecy is produced apart from mankind's design, not by "the will of man." It was produced through men but by the work of the Holy Spirit. Again, the word for "carried/moved" implies the Holy Spirit was the actor, and the prophets were the passive object.

Whereas Romans 8:14 describes the Spirit's work in all Christians ' lives as being "led" by the Spirit. There is a big difference in these terms; notice the difference between the Spirit picking someone up and taking them, and the Spirit leading and guiding someone. The first is more forceful while the second is more cooperative. The Holy Spirit took the Apostles' minds where they needed to go for revelation; the Holy Spirit guides our minds to where they need to go for living by faith.

See the difference between the Apostles' and us. The Holy Spirit injected into the Apostles' minds the truths they needed to know. With us, we learn the truths in our own minds by learning God's word and the Holy Spirit works with the truths in our minds.